Category: Gun Control

NEWTOWN, Conn. – A California Appellate Court has reversed the Fresno Superior Court’s dismissal of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI) lawsuit seeking an injunction to block enforcement of the state’s ammunition microstamping law and remanded the case back to the lower court to hear arguments.

“We are pleased by today’s ruling because it means we will now be able to prove in court that this ill-considered law must be enjoined because it is literally impossible to comply with its requirements, and the law never requires the impossible. We have long maintained that this nascent, unproven and unreliable technology should not have been mandated. When we ultimately prevail in this case, law-abiding consumers in California will once again be able to purchase new models of pistols this law currently prevents our industry members from selling in the state,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

USCCA President Tim Schmidt Offers Condolences to Victims of University Attack

West Bend, WI – United States Concealed Carry Association Founder & President Tim Schmidt has released the following statement regarding today’s attack on the campus of Ohio State University:

“Our thoughts are with the victims of today’s cowardly attack on the campus of Ohio State University and we pray for their quick recovery. We also commend the quick and courageous actions of the armed campus police officer who engaged and neutralized the attacker. As all of us learn more about this latest attack and assess what can be done to prevent future injuries or loss of life, it should not go ignored that the students and faculty affected today were left without the right to protect themselves, since state law prohibits law-abiding citizens from carrying a concealed weapon on campus. While everyone is grateful that a law enforcement officer was quickly on the scene today, that is often not the case, and it is sadly too often that laws like these make innocent citizens in ‘gun-free’ zones the target of those with bad intentions. It’s our hope that lawmakers in Ohio and across the country will reconsider these irrational laws and give law-abiding Americans the opportunity to defend themselves and others.” Read more

GW: This mission to end “gun-free zones” came to mind yesterday after the terrorists attack at Ohio State University.

COLUMBUS, OH – The attack at The Ohio State University today is yet another reminder that no-gun “victim zones” do not make anyone safer.According to The Columbus Dispatch, “Nine people were injured when a man ran into pedestrians with his car on the Ohio State University campus, then exited the vehicle with a butcher knife and started cutting victims.”

Fortunately, an OSU police officer was close by and able to shoot and kill the suspect to stop the attack. But even so, those being attacked were unable to defend themselves effectively because Ohio law forbids carrying a concealed handgun on school campuses, even if school authorities may be willing to allow it.

This is why it is vital that HB 48 is passed into law. This bill would eliminate many of Ohio’s no-gun victim zones, including schools and universities. Read more

Transcript On November 8, you—the 5 million men and women of the National Rifle Association of America, along with the tens of millions of gun owners all over this country who followed your lead—achieved a truly extraordinary, historic, even heroic, accomplishment. In northern Florida and Pennsylvania, throughout Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, in small towns and communities all across America, you were the special forces that swung this election and sent Donald Trump and Mike Pence to the White House.

You did this. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise.

In the wake of this historic event, the same disgraced group of so-called experts, talking heads, pundits and pollsters that got everything wrong before the election are trying to deceive you once again. So let me remove all doubt: gun owners made this election happen. Hillary Clinton made her hatred for the Second Amendment a central issue of this campaign and as a result of that fatal mistake, she’s on permanent political vacation. Read more

In the wake of Tuesday’s election, pro-gun groups say voters sent a clear message once again that gun control is not a winning issue for politicians who seek to curb American’s Second Amendment freedoms.

The race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton shined a spotlight on the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v Heller (2008) in particular and the Second Amendment in general. Clinton promised universal background checks, an “assault weapons” ban, a “high capacity” magazine ban, and numerous other gun controls. Trump promised to save the Second Amendment from “people like Hillary Clinton.” And he voiced direct opposition to expanding background checks or instituting “assault weapon” or “high capacity” magazine bans. In the end, the people voted to protect Second Amendment – and the Heller decision – during a historic November 8 election. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – Following what the Chicago Tribune is calling the deadliest weekend so far this year, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says the continued slaughter is proof that the city’s strict gun control laws are an abject failure.

At least 17 people died over the weekend, bringing the year’s death toll to at least 638 people. So far, more than 3,660 people have been shot in the Windy City, and two full months still remain.

“This continuing savagery in a city that stubbornly resists every attempt to reform its restrictive gun laws, which only discourage and disarm law-abiding citizens, is a testament to the failure of gun control,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. Read more

A Connecticut Superior Court judge today decided in favor of the Remington Outdoor companies, Camfour Holding and Riverview Sales and struck the amended case brought by some families of the victims in the Sandy Hook School tragedy based on allegations of negligent entrustment.

In the decision, the judge said that the plaintiffs’ allegations did not meet the narrow exception for “negligent entrustment” allowed in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) nor did it meet this standard under Connecticut law.

“The court ruled as it should in this case,” said NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane. “We are again reminded of the bulwark that the PLCAA provides the industry against unreasonable litigation of this type even as Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has repeatedly called for its repeal.”

GW: I heard this man, who has taken an oath to protect the Constitution, deny his responsibility to his oath of office. Throw the bum out!

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today called on Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Walker to step down from the bench after launching an anti-gun-rights tirade in court earlier this week in which he stated that firearms “are a scourge of this country and no one should have one as far as I’m concerned.”

“Judge Walker is entitled to his opinion,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “but he should not use the bench as a bully pulpit to attack a constitutionally-protected civil right. Just because he had to sentence a criminal to prison for brutally murdering another man in 2014 is no excuse for this kind of rhetoric.”

Judge Walker’s comments came as he sentenced Marcell Lee Daniel Jr. to 17 ½ years in prison for the June 30, 2014 slaying of 24-year-old Andrew Coggins, Jr. on a North Portland sidewalk. Gottlieb said Walker’s remarks seemed to blame the gun, not the man who committed the crime.

The judge declared that if he could, he would “take all the guns in America, put them on big barges and go dump them in the ocean.” And he did not stop there, according to the Portland Oregonian and a YouTube video. He also said, “There’s no defense to guns. There’s just absolutely no reason to have them. But it is a right of people in this country to own and possess them, and I will not say anything to affect that right.” Read more

— James A. Swan, Ph.D News media are bombarding us with more stories than ever before in human history. This could make us well-informed, but that isn’t happening because of media bias. Research shows that there’s now between 10 and 17 times more negative and sensational news than positive news, resulting in increasing anxiety about what the world is really like. As sociologist Barry Glassner has described in his award-winning book, The Culture of Fear, thanks to media bias we no longer live in “The Information Age,” we live in what has become “The Age of Anxiety”. Read more

SACRAMENTO – Earlier today, California Governor Jerry Brown took action on the remaining gun bills that were passed by the Legislature.

AB 450 – VETOED – McCarty (D-Sacramento) AB 450 would have allowed local governments to radically increase the amount of fees they charge for handgun carry license (“CCW”) applications and license issuance. In FPC’s letter requesting a veto of the measure, we argued, among other things, that the “legislative process should not be used to settle local political scores.” Brown’s veto message mirrored FPC’s concerns, stating that the “bill was spurred by a local dispute in one county,” and that he was “unaware of a larger problem that merits a statewide change at this time.”

SB 1332 – VETOED – Mendoza (D-Los Angeles) SB 1332 would have created hyper-technical new laws surrounding the loan and possession of firearms. In our letter requesting a veto, FPC argued, among other reasons, that “on the heels of SB 826….which moved the existing fund surplus over to a failed, unaccountable DOJ [APPS] program, [SB 1332] is the nail in the coffin for the account.” The Governor shared the same concerns, stating in his veto message that SB 1332 would create “millions of dollars in new and ongoing costs for the Department of Justice” and that he does not believe “that this additional burden and cost comes with a commensurate public safety benefit.”

AB 2165 – SIGNED – Bonta (D-Alameda) AB 2165 amends California’s laws surrounding its “roster” of handguns deemed “not unsafe” by creating new exemptions for a number of law enforcement-related government employees. These exemptions allow more government employees to directly acquire from dealers thousands of handgun models that the State does not believe is “safe” enough for its law-abiding eligible residents to buy and use. AB 2165 was opposed by Firearms Policy Coalition.

Firearms Policy Coalition is still awaiting the Governor’s decision on Senate Bill 443, a civil asset reform measure FPC strongly urged Governor Brown to sign. SB 443 is also supported by such wide-ranging advocacy groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and Institute for Justice. Last week, Brown signed into law Assembly Bill 884, a measure to immediately repeal a law that criminalized the political use of Assembly video footage that followed FPC’s successful federal First Amendment free speech lawsuit FPCSADC, et al. v. Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.